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Mostly so URR can enjoy watching some cannon cockers. Did you happen to see the oddball clip fed 40mm grenade launcher?
Mostly so URR can enjoy watching some cannon cockers.
Did you happen to see the oddball clip fed 40mm grenade launcher?
Man, those 105mm howitzers sure do pump out the projectiles. The sound effects suck. Artillery firing doesn’t sound like that. And each howitzer (or gun in the case of the M107) sounds different. M198, M777, M110, M101A1, etc all sound at least a little different from each other.
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Yeah, they always use some canned sound effects. The M101A1 has a distinctive signature even from the M102. The M114A1 (silver tube) sounds much different from the M198, even though they are firing the same ammunition and charge. Outgoing is a sharp sound, impact a deeper “crump”.
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Split tRail 105’s…that goes way back. The 3/319th FA did a lot of “hip shoots” utilizing CH-47’s as in the film. Most of the time the M-102 105’s were tandem slung with the gun underneath the Hook and a basic load of ammo underneath the gun. Pretty amazing stuff!! Skycrane’s WOW!!
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The magazine-fed grenade launcher was too flimsy and jammed by dirt. It was also off balance depending on the position the magazine was in. During Vietnam they also tested a pump-action grenade launcher with a three-round under-barrel tubular magazine. It was too heavy, flimsy, and jammed easily.
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R Battery 5/11th Marines used M101A1’s occasionally when I was stationed at 29 Stumps from 88-90. They weren’t deployable assets. We used them for dog and pony shows for dignitaries and firepower demo’s. Also for the Close Air Support (Chocolate Mountain Aerial Bombing and Gunnery Range) training mission out of Yuma. (If memory serves, that is. URR might have more info on that.) What I do remember is we fired a lot of illum rounds several nights so some pilots could practice dropping bombs at night. We did smoke and HE during the day. At the end of it all we had several hundred rounds of HE left over, so we did some direct fire practice. I learned two things from that. 1.) Those old howitzers can fire as fast as they can be fed. 2.) If emplaced in soft sand, recoil will move them backwards a lot.When it was over, the muzzle was almost even with ammo pit. That’s about 20 feet, maybe more. In the process of unpacking and fuzing rounds, I lost an ear plug. Pain in my ears, but a crap load of fun.
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You are correct, the M101A1s had just come off float with 15th MEU when I got there, and a few months later, the T/O for a MEU changed to M198s permanently. (Previously, it was unofficially the MEU CO’s choice, I seem to recall.) We used those things for TACP routinely, but also were told to keep them in working order (we had 12 I think at 5/11) in case M109s could not be fit on the MEU (rein).
Loved the M101A1. Fired them a ton, both at Sill and the Stumps. Lost my right eardrum to about 17 rounds of Charge 7 (the foamie fell out and I was plugging at Sill) but still absolutely love the piece.
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Thank you URR.
Paul
PS: How did you know that I was going to ask this question, that you were able to answer it three minutes before I ask it?
PLQ
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Ok, now the time stamps show that your answer was after my question. I swear that when I started that post, the time stamps showed your answer being earlier than my question.
Paul
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XBradTC 
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